OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



301 



that the stream or current sometimes set out from under the ice, and in a 

 south-easterly direction, though at a rate considerably varying for a day or 

 two together. The station now occupied by the ships, and the present 

 clearness of the weather, enabled us to obtain a tolerably distinct view of the 

 lands to the westward ; but the constant fogs and rain experienced by Cap- 

 tain Lyon on his late excursion rendered it impossible for him, at this dis- 

 tance, to recognise the place he had visited ; and the observation he had 

 obtained, giving the latitude much to the southward of the only apparent 

 opening now before us, threw a shade of mystery over the unknown passage, 

 which redoubled our impatience to examine it. 



We had for several days past occasionally seen black whales about the 

 ships, and our boats were kept in constant readiness to strike one, for the 

 sake of the oil, in which endeavour they at length succeeded this morning. 

 The usual signal being exhibited, all the boats were sent to their assistance, 

 and in less than an hour and a half had killed and secured the fish, which 

 proved a moderate-sized one of above " nine feet bone," exactly suiting our 

 purpose. The operation of "flinching" this animal, which was thirty-nine 

 feet and a half in length, occupied most of the afternoon, each ship taking 

 half the blubber and hauling it on the ice, to " make off," or put into casks. 

 We also made fires on the ice, in order to boil a portion of the blubber into 

 oil, for the convenience of stowage ; but this method being found a wasteful 

 one until it is left several days to drain, we boiled only a hundred and 

 twenty gallons each, and then put the rest into tanks and casks, being a 

 supply sufficient for at least two years. 



The latitude of our present station was 69° 32' 10"; the longitude, by chro- 

 nometers, 81° 23' 06"; the dip of the magnetic needle 88° 06' 26"; and the vari- 

 ation 86°05' 43" westerly ; the latter phenomenon having considerably increased 

 since our last observations. In the course of the night Mr. Ross was again 

 fortunate in procuring one or two specimens of the Larus Sabini, out of a 

 flock of forty that flew past the ship from the westward. Mr. Ross remarked 

 that they had no other birds in company, and flew high as if migrating, 

 but afterwards alighted in the open water at some distance from the edge of 

 the ice. The operation of "flinching" a whale, which in Davis's Strait 

 and the Greenland Seas collects a large assemblage of birds about the ship 

 had not the same effect here, five or six of the Larus Arg-entatus beine: all 

 that were thus attracted. Fulmar petrels, the usual visitants on such oc- 

 casions, are never seen here, which seemed to us the more remarkable 



